(Moscow) A hundred houses in a village in the Urals in Russia burned on Tuesday after a fire started which also killed one person and whose origin remains unknown, the emergency services announced.
“A total of 92 buildings were damaged by fire. One fatality was reported during firefighting and debris removal,” the Russian Emergencies Ministry announced on Telegram.
He did not specify the cause of the fire, but local media spoke of several fires that broke out in the region on Tuesday.
The disaster took place in the village of Sosva, in the Sverdlovsk region, which has about 7,000 inhabitants and where companies in the forestry industry are located.
Videos circulating on social media show apocalyptic scenes with streets surrounded by fire and smoke.
“The rapid spread of the fire was facilitated by a large amount of dry vegetation, gusts and the distance from water sources,” the ministry said.
According to him, to get water, the firefighters “built pipes from the Sosva river for a total length of 2 kilometers”. The operations involve 120 people and a helicopter.
“Sosva has almost disappeared. The main street, the school, the hospital and the penal colony completely burned down. We brought in a fire train and helicopters. And so what ? said a witness quoted by the regional news portal E1.ru.
According to this media, 240 detainees from this penal colony were evacuated due to the fire.
Russia is confronted each year, in particular because of global warming, with increasingly destructive fires and encompassing growing areas.
Environmental activists have accused the government of not doing enough to put out the fires, which are often located in remote and sparsely populated areas.